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See The ISTE Standards - Empowered Learner

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See The ISTE Standards - Empowered Learner

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This website provides an in depth look at the qualities that students demonstrate as an Empowered Learner, and breaks apart 5 key areas of development within the standard: Student Motivation, Social Emotional Engagement, Self-Direction, Constructive Use of Feedback, and Digital Fluency. For each key area, a description of skills and traits a student should demonstrate by answering the question "what does the student look like?". As a teacher, using these guiding qualities would help me understand where students are at in the development of these key areas and ideas of what can be done to support students in continuing to develop.

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See The ISTE Standards - Empowered Learner

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″...a student who has significant opportunities, voice and choice for purposeful engagement in deep, authentic learning.”

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This website provides specific tools that teachers can implement in the classroom to support students in meeting this ISTE Standard. The resources range from simple to more complex, giving teachers a starting point no matter their current comfort level with integrating technology. As a teacher, I can use this list as a starting point of resources to integrate into my lessons to build empowered learners, adding to the resources as I find my own resources that work well for my students.

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ISTE Standards: Possible Tools for Empowered Learning | Tech In Pedagogy

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Becoming an ISTE Certified Educator was a great experience. The certification is tool agnostic and competency-based so it has broader applications. My best personal reason for earning the certification though is because it forced me to engage in deep reflection. I felt confident that I was qualified. The question was how do I show it.

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This website provides a breakdown of each substandard in ISTE Standard 1.2 Digital Citizen, including 2a. Digital Identity, 2b. Safe and Ethical Behavior, 2c. Intellectual Property Rights, and 2d. Personal Data Privacy and Security. For each substandard, instructional activities are included with a recommended age range for each resource. As a teacher, I can use this resource to select activities appropriate for my students while ensuring I am using vetted resources to effectively help my students become responsible digital citizens.

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Standard 2: Digital Citizen | ISTE Student Standards

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Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical. [with sub-standards 2a-2d]

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9 Resources for Teaching Digital Citizenship

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9 Resources for Teaching Digital Citizenship

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In this blog post from the ISTE website, 9 resources for teaching digital citizenship are shared. A variety of resources and strategies for embedding digital citizenship lessons into instruction are linked, providing teachers with easy to implement resources. As a teacher, I can use this resource to help remind myself of ways to teach digital citizenship within existing lessons, as well as remind myself of the importance of teaching and modeling how to be a responsible digital citizen.

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9 resources for teaching digital citizenship | ISTE

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Most educators recognize the need for digital citizenship, but many are at a loss for how to teach it. Here are 9 resources to help teach digital…

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The linked playlist of ISTE Standards in Action show how teachers are implementing strategies to support students in meeting the third ISTE standard Knowledge Constructor. There are three sub-standards: Effective Research Strategies, Evaluate Information, and Curate Information. The videos provide examples of how activities planned in the classroom also meet this ISTE standard and reiterate the importance of students being able to effectively use technology resources to construct knowledge through research. As a teacher, these videos serve as examples for me to show how relevant this standard is and how important it is to teach my students to effectively research and evaluate resources.

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Knowledge constructors critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences fo...

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This website breaks down the sub-standards of ISTE Standard 1.3 Knowledge Constructor and provides engaging activities to use with students to teach principles of this standard. There are multiple activities for each substandard, and a recommendation for grade levels to use each activity with is provided. As a teacher, this provides me with premade activities that I can adapt and implement with my students to ensure I am teaching to this standard.

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Standard 3: Knowledge Constructor | ISTE Student Standards

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In lesson 4 of 6 of this multi-step project, students will synthesize information from the sources they research in part 3 to create an original product for their chosen community stakeholder.

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ISTE - Innovative Designer Standard and Resources

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ISTE - Innovative Designer Standard and Resources

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This website provides an in-depth analysis of ISTE Standard 1.4 Innovative Designer and the four sub-standards. For each substandard, a working definition is provided to help educators understand what a student looks like and can demonstrate when meeting the standard. Additionally, a tool is provided for each substandard for teachers to explore and implement to support students in becoming innovative designers. As a teacher, this provides me a good idea of what is required of the standard, what students should be able to do, and new resources to try with my students to demonstrate their understanding.

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Innovative Designer standard opens the door to students’ imaginative, creative energy

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We help educators around the world use technology to solve tough problems.

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ISTE Standards in Action - Innovative Designer

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ISTE Standards in Action - Innovative Designer

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The linked playlist shows how teachers use technology to support students becoming innovative designers, meeting sub-standards 4a. Design Process, 4b. Design Constraints, 4c. Prototypes, and 4d. Open-Ended Problems. This allows viewers to see real-life examples of how teachers are using technology to support learning and support students in being innovative in solving problems using technology. As a teacher, I can use these examples to craft ways to support my students in engaging in the design and problem solving process to support their learning.

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Innovative designers use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.

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ISTE Computational Thinking Teacher Resources

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ISTE Computational Thinking Teacher Resources

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This Teacher Resources guide by ISTE provides in-depth information regarding ISTE Standard 1.5 Computational Thinker. I found the Vocabulary and Progression Chart on pages 8-9 helpful in understanding each skill and how it should look for students at each age range. The guide also provides examples and resources of technology tools that can be integrated into content-specific standards at various grade levels to support computational thinking. This guide will be impactful to me as a teacher because it provides explicit information, examples, and resources applicable to this standard that can be implemented in the classroom.

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How To Develop Computational Thinkers | ISTE

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ISTE Blog - How to Develop Computational Thinkers

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ISTE Blog - How to Develop Computational Thinkers

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This blog provides ideas and strategies for developing computational thinkers in the classroom to support problem-solving. There are four main components of computational thinking: decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithm design. There are resources linked within each component to support further learning for teachers, as well as a section with resources for teachers to get started in expanding on practices in the classroom to support computational thinkers. As a teacher, this resource allows me to learn more about the key components of developing computational thinkers, and provides new tools to implement to support my students.

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How To Develop Computational Thinkers | ISTE

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Help your students become computational thinkers by building their competency in decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction and algorithm design.

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This resource provides ideas and sample lessons for using technology to support students in becoming creative communicators. Technology tools used vary from low tech options to higher level tools, and span across grade levels. As a teacher, this resource is helpful in seeing how technology can be used during instruction, and the language to use with students, even the youngest students, to support their understanding of using technology to support creative communication.

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Standard 6: Creative Communicator | ISTE Student Standards | ISTE Student Standards

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Edutopia - Edtech Tools Can Enhance Creativity

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Edutopia - Edtech Tools Can Enhance Creativity

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This website provides two tools that can be used at the elementary level to support students in communicating what they learned in a creative way. The site recommends Seesaw and Flip as tools to use for students to share their work, with options for students to record themselves and share their thinking and their work. As a teacher, these tools would be great to use for students to not only share their work with me, but also share their learning with their families.

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Teachers can guide students to explore versatile tools like Flip and Seesaw in a range of assignments across the curriculum.

Promoting creativity with educational technology in elementary school is a fantastic way to foster the 4Cs of 21st-century learning-communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity-while providing students with future-ready experiences.

Encouraging students to create products helps them synthesize information and use critical thinking and processing skills to bring their thinking to life. And using edtech to power creativity doesn't have to feel daunting. Below, I share some insights from my experiences.

Getting Started

To begin, explore your edtech tools. When I first started using Seesaw, I explored the tool on my own before using it with students. Once I became familiar, I put it in students' hands-and found that letting them explore tools in a low-risk environment, such as morning warm-up, was productive.

I gave students one rule: Don't ask, just show. They couldn't ask me for help in exploring the tool, but they could show me and their classmates anything they learned about it. I ended the day by asking for suggestions: What subject did they think we could use it with? What could we do with it? This approach not only helped me gradually integrate the tool into my classroom but allowed students to take ownership of their learning.

Word problems and feedback: Students generate a word problem, and their classmates solve it and put the answer in the comments. The author of the problem then gives feedback on the answers.

Grammar talks: We type our mentor sentence in, and students leave their noticings in the comments.

Collaboration: Students brainstorm writing topics with classes down the hallway via the blog feature.

Book reviews: Students leave book reviews for their classmates to learn about the books in our class library.

ePortfolio: Students upload all their projects, even if created on another platform, so we can leave comments and feedback for each other.

Math work: Students leave a video or caption when doing their math work, explaining how they solved each problem and how they know they're correct. This gives me insight into their conceptual understanding.

Accountability tool: In math or reading stations, I have students take a picture of the day's work, explain it, and articulate how it helped them learn the concept.

Here are some innovative ways in which my students and I have used Seesaw in the classroom:

Seesaw is a versatile tool that can be used in many different ways, supporting the development of skills that can help students thrive in their futures.

After becoming familiar with Seesaw, our class was ready for a new challenge. That was when I discovered Flip. As with Seesaw, I asked students to explore its features and potential uses. Flip is another versatile tool that can empower students and give them a voice.

For instance, I had a very shy student who was uncomfortable presenting to the class; in front of the Flip camera, he came alive, and his nerves left him. This experience highlighted another benefit of integrating creativity through tech tools: It allows students who struggle with presenting to do so on their own terms.

Podcasts: My students create a podcast about a history topic they learn about in class.

Commercials: Students develop commercials to showcase their persuasive skills.

How-tos: They produce how-to videos on topics they're knowledgeable about, to share with families and classmates.

Connection: Our second graders learn about theater from high school students. They ask questions and communicate with each other through videos.

Pen pals: We engage in video pen pal exchanges with a school in a different state.

Weather reports: Students create weather reports using the green screen feature.

These are some products that students can create with Flip:

While Flip shares similarities with Seesaw, each has unique aspects and features that set it apart. This provides students with a variety of choices when deciding what tool to use to showcase their learning. One common feature between the tools is comments, which I consistently utilize to have students give feedback to each other. This equips them with essential skills for responding and communicating in a safe online environment.

In this digital age, the array of available edtech tools is vast and continually expanding. I encourage educators to explore these tools and deepen their understanding of each one. The more familiar you are with each tool, the more effectively you can brainstorm innovative ideas to bring creation into your classroom.

Fortunately, most of these tools have a help center and a strong social media presence, which can be valuable resources for learning more about their features and best practices. Remember: The key is to proceed with a slow, steady approach, allowing yourself to gradually become an edtech expert in your classroom alongside your students. This journey of exploration and discovery will not only enhance your teaching practice but also provide students with skills that will help them succeed for years to come.

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How Edtech Tools Can Enhance Creativity in the Elementary Grades

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Teachers can guide students to explore versatile tools like Flip and Seesaw in a range of assignments across the curriculum.

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Teaching Ideas for the Global Collaborator ISTE Standard

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Teaching Ideas for the Global Collaborator ISTE Standard

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This blog shares a variety of ideas that can be implemented to encourage students to be global collaborators, including tools such as Skype and Zoom, Google Chat, social media, and Google Translate to connect and collaborate with others. It also reiterates the importance of responsible digital citizenship while using these tools. As a teacher, it gives me ideas for how to help my students learn from others who may be close or far away using technology tools to support their communication and collaboration.

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Ideas for teaching the Global Collaborator ISTE standard

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The Global Collaborator ISTE standard outlines the skills necessary for students to engage in global collaboration using digital tools.

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ISTE Standards in Action - Global Collaborator

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ISTE Standards in Action - Global Collaborator

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The linked playlist shows how technology can be used to connect students to learning with and from others around the world. There are four videos linked that represent each of the sub-standards under ISTE Standard 7. As a teacher, it is helpful to me to see how other educators have created and applied activities that align to this standard and connect students to international issues and learning outside of their own community. This, in my opinion, is the most challenging standard for me to think of how I would implement activities in my classroom, and the videos help me deepen my understanding of how I can engage students in this work.

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Global collaborators use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams ...